If you have a voracious reader in your life, consider a Kindle. I enjoy it more than anything I have ever bought.

IMHO, I think the Nook makes for a better product than the Kindle (disclosure: I haven't used either one). But the post-Christmas ship date means that it'll only make a good gift for a nerd who's already excited about it but hasn't pre-ordered one for themselves.

I don't know how to take your comment seriously. You haven't used either product and you are suggesting that one is better than other? On what basis? I have Kindle and I think it totally rocks.

Things I may buy for people this year:

  * Super Mario Brothers Wii
  * The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception
  * Forbidden Lego: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You  Against! 
  * Bluray player
  * Netflix subscription / renewal
  * Lomography film camera(s)

Wow, I may have to look into "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" myself. I remember a Discovery channel show, I think it was, where an agent was showing the camera how to disappear. He went into a bookstore or something and you couldn't tell he came out, because he was walking away as an old lady.

Anything from ThinkGeek! http://www.thinkgeek.com/

With the obvious exception of "Star Trek Cologne and Perfume". What they hell were they thinking.

A Pattern Language presents a compelling way of thinking about "place". It clarifies what so many have longed for in the way of community, and shows clearly what's wrong and what to change to fix it. I highly recommend it for everyone!

I'm thinking of getting my parents a roomba. Anyone have any experience with those?

I got a Roomba 530 recently and it works great. I have both carpet and hard wood floors, and it does fine with the transitions. I'm thinking about getting one for my parents too. Tip: I got mine from Bed Bath and Beyond for 20% by signing up for their email list and printing off the coupon they sent me for doing that.

Awesome, thanks for the tip! I'm looking at the 530 too, and I was wondering about the transitions. I was on Amazon reading reviews since they seemed to have the lowest price, but your tip is better. The main concern I saw was a frequent need to clean the brushes, especially with pets that shed fur, but the only pet my parents have is a parrot, so it should be great. :)

I have a very shedding prone cat, a wife whose long hair is deposited all over the place, and a newer Roomba. The brush cleaning can get old, but the thing to remember is they built them for it. Included in the box (should be) a circular cleaning tool, though if you don't read the instructions it will look like extraneous plastic. The brush roller pops out, and the sides pop off the roller such that getting pet and wife hair out of it isn't all that bad if you do it every couple of runs.

The nice thing is that if it ever does get bound, or stuck the Roomba knows when to quit. It'll start dinging and whining until you fix it up.

Pro-Tip: Don't leave Roomba alone with cords and/or fabric. It will try to eat it, and it will get stuck under your TV unit all while crying for help only after running out of juice. :)

lol, cool thanks. :)